


Heroes

by pipisafoat



Category: Scrubs (TV)
Genre: Gen, Strong Women, famous women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22176205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipisafoat/pseuds/pipisafoat
Summary: JD tries to make sense of the nicknames Cox throws at him.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> For my wonderful sister, one of the strongest women I know: Hey Number One! Happy early birthday!

“Hey, Carla, is there a famous Grace?”

The nurse looked up from her paperwork slowly. “Is there a famous Grace?”

JD nodded. “Yeah. You know. Someone named Grace who did something or was something.”

“Bambi, I know what famous means.”

He flushed. Duh.

“Grace Hopper. 1930s, if I’m remembering right. Look her up yourself; I’m busy.”

“I will. Thanks, Carla!”

“No problem, Bambi. When I’m not swamped, you’re telling me why.”

* * *

“Hey, Turk, Todd. Listen, Turk, wasn’t it a Naomi somebody who inspired Rosie the Riveter?”

“Dude, that’s not something I would know,” Turk responded before taking a huge bite of his sandwich.

“Naomi Parker,” Todd interjected. “It was the 1940s, she had that bandana over her hair, and she was bent over some machinery in that photo. Why?”

The two best friends stared at their table mate. “How do you know that?” Turk finally asked.

Todd shrugged. “Just do.”

* * *

“Anne Frank. Lucille Ball. Um….” JD tapped his pencil against his clipboard, swearing under his breath when the pencil got tangled in his stethoscope. “Eleanor Roosevelt. Queen Elizabeth.”

“What are you muttering about, Bambi?”

He turned with a smile for his best friend’s girlfriend. “Just a personal project.”

“Anything to do with Grace Hopper?”

He opened his mouth to answer, then caught sight of Dr. Cox stalking toward him. With eye contact. Uh oh. “Yes, but I think I have to go….”

Carla glanced over her shoulder, then grimaced at JD. “Yeah. I’ll see you later.”

* * *

“You got all that, Ella?”

JD glanced swiftly down his to-do list. “Yes, I do. And thank you for recognizing my superior singing skills.”

“Your … what?” Dr. Cox looked completely baffled, and JD hid his smile (and his crow of triumph). “Get out of here, Newbie.”

* * *

A whistle pierced the air, and JD looked around to find its source, namely Dr. Cox. “Get over here, Margaret!” the man called, and JD finally located him and bounded over to his side.

“Pregnant person?” he asked, wondering if Dr. Cox had caught on to JD’s scheme yet and started playing along.

“Seventh pregnancy despite reported birth control. This one is particularly high risk, as he’s on testosterone now and nearly died the last two times.” Dr. Cox squinted at JD. “How did you guess?”

JD shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess, unless you’ve been sending out secret hints I’ve picked up on.”

“Lucky? Didn’t the janitor lock you on the roof this morning?”

He could feel his face heating as the blood rushed to it. “I figured out how to get back in!”

“An hour later, he tells me.”

“You’re in cahoots with the janitor? I knew it,” he muttered.

Dr. Cox laughed. “Nah, we just share our best stories. Like this one.”

* * *

“Rita!”

“Moreno, the only Latino person to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony,” JD murmured to himself as he walked over to Dr. Cox’s side.

“What’s that?”

JD decided to play dumb rather than explain why he was talking about actresses while ostensibly doctoring. “What’s what?”

“Hmph.” The older man eyed him but didn’t press it as he presented JD’s next patient.

* * *

“Jane!”

“Goodall, studied chimpanzees and did a lot for wildlife conservation efforts.”

* * *

“Betty!”

“God, too many Bettys to choose from.”

* * *

“Michelle!”

“Michelle Kwan, most decorated figure skater in American history, Chinese ancestry."

* * *

“Catherine!”

“With a C, Catherine the Great. With a K, hmm, Katherine Johnson, got a man on the moon with her math.”

* * *

“Shirley!”

JD frowned as he turned around. “Can I be a black woman?” he asked Dr. Cox. “Or is that racially insensitive?”

His mentor blinked. “There’s no such thing as a racial transition, but if you want to be a woman, be my guest.”

“I meant for Shirley. Can Shirley be black?”

Dr. Cox shook his head slowly. “Newbie, if you think I care about the race of my insults, you are one crayon short of a mental ward, and if you’ve ever seen the crayons in a mental ward, well, then you have some inkling of how much I care about what color Shirley is.”

“It’s just that the only Shirley I can think of is Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first woman and the first Black person to enter a presidential race.”

Cox shook his head more rapidly. “Again, Newbie, I don’t care who you decide to be as long as you decide to be a doctor at the same time.”

* * *

The names got more interesting after that, and JD found himself looking them up when he got home more often than not. Indira Gandhi was easy enough, but Germaine Greer was not a name he recognized. Aretha could only be Aretha Franklin, Junko Tabei was a total mystery but easy to find, Sandra could have been _anybody_ (but JD decided she was Sandra Day O’Connor). He learned about South Africa (Miriam Makeba), Pakistan (Benazir Bhutto, Malala Yousafzai), Iraq (Nadia Murad), and so many other countries around the world through their women’s accomplishments.

Then they got really hard.

“Hey, guys,” JD said, setting his tray on the table opposite Turk and Todd and settling into the chair. “Do you know any famous Ambers?”

“Heard,” Turk said, as Todd said, “Rose.”

“Amber Heard is an actress. Friday Night Lights and some other, smaller roles.”

“Amber Rose is a model. Smokin’ hot.”

JD thought for a second, then shook his head. “No, I doubt either of them are what I’m looking for. I’ll research it at home tonight.”

His research turned up several actresses, a couple reality tv stars, and … that was about it. Nobody with any lasting impact on the world. He eyed the telephone for about an hour before deciding to wait until the next day.

* * *

“Dr. Cox!”

“So help me, Annabel, if you need help before I’ve even touched my coffee….”

JD hesitated so hard he nearly fell over mid-step. 

“Oh, what the hell, why don’t you just go on and ask me all the inane questions you can think of! Golly, won’t that be fun!”

Oof. Probably not the best time for a question about the names - the supposed insults. He should just turn around and walk away— “Dr. Cox, I was wondering who Amber was supposed to be. The thing is, I looked for hours, but I only found small tv actors and a model.”

“What makes you think it wasn’t one of them?” Dr. Cox actually sounded somewhat interested - somewhat - beneath the tone.

“Because everyone else has been someone who changed the world.”

“Hmm. And models and small actresses don’t change the world?”

“Not the same way.”

Dr. Cox smiled, actually smiled, and leaned against the nearest wall. “Amber Rose. And before you ask, Annabel Chong, the porn star.”

“Your personal heroes?” JD asked, unsure why he was even speaking.

Dr. Cox raised his coffee in a silent salute. “Don’t think for a second you have their bodies, though, Newbie. You … you had just better stay in school."


End file.
